What did you see tonight?

[PeterStudz]

Had a good night/morning mainly on the planets. My daughter sleeping in the garden. Saw the ISS and messed around with our binoculars. Lying down is a good way to go with binoculars.

Small bit of sleep then up at 2:15am. Saturn, the moon and Jupiter strung out in a slight curve (later followed by Mars) looked stunning. Seeing was OK but could have been better. Certainly not as good as last weekend. Viewed Saturn, the moon and Jupiter. Could make out the GRS and the shadow transit of Io. I do enjoy shadow transits.

Finally finishing on Mars, but my daughter had gone back to bed by then. Picture below taken at 4:55am. I had to use the iPad camera as I wanted the phone as a Push-To on Mars using PSAlign Pro.

And when the sun got up I put the solar filter on and we both had a good look at the sun. Seeing decent and there are a bunch of unusual sunspots. 

Not much sleep and it’ll probably take me a few days to recover!

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by PeterStudz

[beetm]

Ok, bear in mind I'm a complete beginner with binoculars (20x80) but I just had my first two really clear nights and I have to talk about it!

Friday (15th/16th) was not ideal, I'm in a bortle 5 with neighbors who like to leave their outside lights on. I started off at Altair and attempted to find the "Coat Hanger" by working my way towards Vega. I got lost amongst the stars and noticed moonlight creeping in from the east. So, on a whim I pointed at the moon....... Wow! My jaw dropped! The shadow was a thin sliver from about 11 o'clock to 4 o'clock, but it was throwing shadows on the craters etc, it was just amazing. I thought the bright moonlight would spoil the viewing, boy, was I wrong!

By the time I was ready to move on from the moon I noticed Cassiopeia climbing out of the trees in the North East. During all the cloudy nights of the last few weeks I had read that Shedar points toward M31, so I gave it a try, and got it first time! Not spectacular, (due to the moon, probably!) but just looking at a galaxy that far away was mind-opening. It looked like a dirty brownish fingerprint in the sky, but I was so excited to be looking at my first Messier!! All in all I spent over 3 hours out there, but it just flew by!

Saturday (16th/17th) looked better to me, more stars visible to the naked eye, I started looking for the coat hanger asterism again, and found it reasonably quickly. It filled my fov with relatively bright stars, I think I was looking for something less obvious the night before, searching amongst the fainter ones. Now I know. I will say, (Ya'll already know this!) that once you've found an object it is much easier to locate again and again. The Southern sky was darker than the previous night, so I pointed south and pretty quickly found Ptolemy's Cluster (M7) and it's neighbor M6. Another beautiful moment. The stars were just so clear against the dark sky, just beautiful. Moving up through the Milky way I could just make it out mostly through averted vision. A lot of "faint fuzzies". The best one was the Sagittarius cloud, that was pretty clear just looking at it. Then I noticed Saturn climbing in the same area as the moon the night before, I can't make out the rings as such but it's pretty clear that it isn't "round" I attempted a poor picture with my phone, (doesn't do it justice). Another 3 plus hours that felt like 30 minutes!

I was so excited to be out for the two nights, I cannot wait for my next opportunity. If you've got this far thanks for indulging a newbie's excitement, it was a complete blast!

[Epick Crom]

7 hours ago, beetm said:

Ok, bear in mind I'm a complete beginner with binoculars (20x80) but I just had my first two really clear nights and I have to talk about it!

Friday (15th/16th) was not ideal, I'm in a bortle 5 with neighbors who like to leave their outside lights on. I started off at Altair and attempted to find the "Coat Hanger" by working my way towards Vega. I got lost amongst the stars and noticed moonlight creeping in from the east. So, on a whim I pointed at the moon....... Wow! My jaw dropped! The shadow was a thin sliver from about 11 o'clock to 4 o'clock, but it was throwing shadows on the craters etc, it was just amazing. I thought the bright moonlight would spoil the viewing, boy, was I wrong!

By the time I was ready to move on from the moon I noticed Cassiopeia climbing out of the trees in the North East. During all the cloudy nights of the last few weeks I had read that Shedar points toward M31, so I gave it a try, and got it first time! Not spectacular, (due to the moon, probably!) but just looking at a galaxy that far away was mind-opening. It looked like a dirty brownish fingerprint in the sky, but I was so excited to be looking at my first Messier!! All in all I spent over 3 hours out there, but it just flew by!

Saturday (16th/17th) looked better to me, more stars visible to the naked eye, I started looking for the coat hanger asterism again, and found it reasonably quickly. It filled my fov with relatively bright stars, I think I was looking for something less obvious the night before, searching amongst the fainter ones. Now I know. I will say, (Ya'll already know this!) that once you've found an object it is much easier to locate again and again. The Southern sky was darker than the previous night, so I pointed south and pretty quickly found Ptolemy's Cluster (M7) and it's neighbor M6. Another beautiful moment. The stars were just so clear against the dark sky, just beautiful. Moving up through the Milky way I could just make it out mostly through averted vision. A lot of "faint fuzzies". The best one was the Sagittarius cloud, that was pretty clear just looking at it. Then I noticed Saturn climbing in the same area as the moon the night before, I can't make out the rings as such but it's pretty clear that it isn't "round" I attempted a poor picture with my phone, (doesn't do it justice). Another 3 plus hours that felt like 30 minutes!

I was so excited to be out for the two nights, I cannot wait for my next opportunity. If you've got this far thanks for indulging a newbie's excitement, it was a complete blast!

Hi, welcome to SGL and the wonderful world of amateur astronomy! Congratulations on discovering your first celestrial objects, there are countless sights awaiting you! Enjoy and wishing you clear skies.

[badhex]

15 hours ago, beetm said:

Ok, bear in mind I'm a complete beginner with binoculars (20x80) but I just had my first two really clear nights and I have to talk about it!

Friday (15th/16th) was not ideal, I'm in a bortle 5 with neighbors who like to leave their outside lights on. I started off at Altair and attempted to find the "Coat Hanger" by working my way towards Vega. I got lost amongst the stars and noticed moonlight creeping in from the east. So, on a whim I pointed at the moon....... Wow! My jaw dropped! The shadow was a thin sliver from about 11 o'clock to 4 o'clock, but it was throwing shadows on the craters etc, it was just amazing. I thought the bright moonlight would spoil the viewing, boy, was I wrong!

By the time I was ready to move on from the moon I noticed Cassiopeia climbing out of the trees in the North East. During all the cloudy nights of the last few weeks I had read that Shedar points toward M31, so I gave it a try, and got it first time! Not spectacular, (due to the moon, probably!) but just looking at a galaxy that far away was mind-opening. It looked like a dirty brownish fingerprint in the sky, but I was so excited to be looking at my first Messier!! All in all I spent over 3 hours out there, but it just flew by!

Saturday (16th/17th) looked better to me, more stars visible to the naked eye, I started looking for the coat hanger asterism again, and found it reasonably quickly. It filled my fov with relatively bright stars, I think I was looking for something less obvious the night before, searching amongst the fainter ones. Now I know. I will say, (Ya'll already know this!) that once you've found an object it is much easier to locate again and again. The Southern sky was darker than the previous night, so I pointed south and pretty quickly found Ptolemy's Cluster (M7) and it's neighbor M6. Another beautiful moment. The stars were just so clear against the dark sky, just beautiful. Moving up through the Milky way I could just make it out mostly through averted vision. A lot of "faint fuzzies". The best one was the Sagittarius cloud, that was pretty clear just looking at it. Then I noticed Saturn climbing in the same area as the moon the night before, I can't make out the rings as such but it's pretty clear that it isn't "round" I attempted a poor picture with my phone, (doesn't do it justice). Another 3 plus hours that felt like 30 minutes!

I was so excited to be out for the two nights, I cannot wait for my next opportunity. If you've got this far thanks for indulging a newbie's excitement, it was a complete blast!

Great report! Welcome to SGL 🙂

[badhex]

Had another clear night on Saturday so had another crack at C/2017 K2 Panstarrs, with even less success than last time! 

More successful were some observations of the giants Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, as well as my first time observing a Saturnian satellite other than Titan. 

As always, wordy version is here:

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

Due to an earlier start to work this morning i went for my morning walk at 4am . Wow , i've said it before but it reall is the best time to be out , at this time of year anyway .Jupiter was shining brightly to the left of the moon and i even managed to spot Mars , and of course Venus, which is a lovely sight . I'm turning into a bit of a lunar / planetary freak whilst the lighter nights and early sunrises  exist , like many i'm sure . 

Looking forward to the nights drawing in and the mornings getting a little darker . 

Disclaimer : i honestly like the summer.... really .   

[Sky-J]

On 17/07/2022 at 17:29, beetm said:

Ok, bear in mind I'm a complete beginner with binoculars (20x80) but I just had my first two really clear nights and I have to talk about it….

Welcome to SGL!

An excellent report and I’m glad your enjoying the binoculars!

Bins are what got me back into astronomy and a great way to surf the stars.

If you’ve not got it, “binocular highlights” by Gary Seronik has some fantastic binocular targets and great diagrams of how to find them.

I love this book and always take it with me when I travel.

On 17/07/2022 at 17:29, beetm said:

 

[Stu1smartcookie]

Another early walk ... even earlier than yesterday , at this rate i will be staying up all night !! Took a photo of Jupiter sitting above the Moon. It was a bit cloudy first thing this morning and the photo highlights this

[PeterC65]

The sky was clear and it was still nicely warm last night so I was up until 3am trying out EEVA for the first time, with the 72mm refractor and the new (to me) Altair GPCAM2 327C camera.

The session went like my first visual astronomy session last year, mostly frustrating, a little disappointing, but with a hint that there might be something in this!

I could control the mount from Stellarium but not from the SynScan software (I hadn't tested this beforehand and just assumed that if Stellarium was working then SynScan would also work). This made it impossible to nudge the scope from the laptop and meant I had to take the laptop outside where I could use the hand controller but with the laptop running on old batteries.

I tried aligning the mount using the camera image but the small field of view and my lack of experience with the software (AltairCapture) made it hard to reliably find the alignment stars and in the end I aligned with an eyepiece.

Overall, the Moon was no better than with an eyepiece, Jupiter and Saturn were a little better (bigger), and M45 was like looking through a keyhole, but star fields looked impressive with live stacking bringing out their colours and again with live stacking I got by far the best view I've ever had of M31. I could just make out its full extent and could easily see the dark clouds on one side of the galaxy centre.

I think this bodes well for future sessions when I have sorted out the alignment process with a camera and mastered the software.

The full report is posted here.

 

[ONIKKINEN]

Quick hop outside for some planets and the Moon with a new splurge investment , the Pentax XW7 and a Baader fringe killer filter for the 90mm Long perng to cull the CA around Jupiter.

The filter completely eliminates the purple haze behind Jupiter and the view is MUCH clearer throughout all of the disk, but of course everything is covered in an off-white creamy yellow cast. Got used to it in no time and its much better than the purple fringe, but not sure if it will stay in the diagonal for less bright objects, time will tell whether that is the case. With a 2.5x barlow i was pushing 180x with the XW7, which the seeing surprisingly supported quite well for Jupiter. Seeing allowed glimpses of at times a fairly clear serrated looking effect on the southern side of the main belt (is it the SEB or the NEB, dunno?).

Saturn is still low in the sky over rooftops and so the seeing was quite heavy. Not much detail to be seen but the rings themselves are just so cool it doesn't matter.

The Moon, its made of cheese! Or at least that's what the fringe killer makes it look like 😁. This one took some getting used to, and im not sure i did get used to it just yet, but it was also very low in the sky so had an additional yellowy cast added to it. Other than that the Moon is a thing of beauty with the XW7. Very comfortable observing experience with the tack sharp 70 degree field of view with good eye relief, i feel like i can have my head at any angle and still see clearly through the eyepiece.

Mars is still a nondescript not quite round reddish blob. Bigger than a star but no detail to be seen.

Loving the new grab and go scope that doesn't require hauling 60kg of equipment down the stairs to use!

[SuburbanMak]

A combination of work vs. lack of darkness vs. life have conspired to keep me out of the game for the last few weeks. 
 Got out with the Mak 127  in a gap in the clouds tonight though and enjoyed looking at Saturn (some banding, 2 moons, occasional glimpses of the Cassini division) , Jupiter (3 moons main bands clear, occasional glimpses of more detail) and a still blurry Mars. 
Also looked at a couple of the usual Messier suspects- M31, M13, M57. 
 

Lovely warm summer session! 

[Ags]

I caught the last 20 seconds of an ISS flyover, then had a brief look at some doubles. But it was very hazy so cut it short.

[Ratlet]

Hellish stormy last night and fairly dense cloud when I left work this morning, but some breaks in the cloud so setup for some solar.  Mostly because I had collimated my scope and wanted to see if it had improved.  Unfortunately I had just finished a 12hour shift and the only nearby place was looking out through a window.  Setup and got to it regardless.

Kicked off with the 28mm that came with my 130pds.  I'd say there was a definite improvement in the sharpness, unfortunately this was because I could see the edge of the sun boiling.  Could make out maybe 3 sunspots in a nice equatorial as well as one larger one. I swapped out to the 8-24mm zoom but the vibration was a bit much with being setup on carpet.

Swapped to an 8mm BST and I would say the collimation has improved the sharpness.  I could easily make out a couple smaller sunspots that were 'paired' with 2 of the sunspots on the triangle.  Finally stepped back to a 30mm Plossl and rotated the newt so I was looking down into the scope.  This killed the vibration and focussed beautifully.  Very sharp imho.  I think my brain new from looking at higher mag where things should be so I could see the smaller sunspots I observed earlier.  I spent about 15 minutes observing and watching the light clouds drift across at a rapid rate of knots.

This was a fun little session.  I didn't really get on with the Plossl last time but loved it today.  Is there such a thing as learning how to look through an eyepiece?  Maybe I'm getting better at it.  Found it very comfortable with my glasses on which is a first.  I guess practice makes perfect.  Now I just need the clouds to sod off when it is dark so I can point my scope at a different star!

[badhex]

Had a crystal clear night to test out two new purchases - a 2.5x Powermate and Gitzo Series 2 Traveller. 

Able to kill two birds with one stone, I opted for some higher power views of Jupiter and Saturn, and observed enough earthshine on the moon to see mares in the unlit portion! 

Lots more words here:

 

[Zermelo]

Both seeing and transparency were really excellent here tonight, one of the best evenings I can remember. NELM was around 5.5 and I measured 21.00 on the SQM (pointing towards the milky way).

A dozen doubles, several new ones including HR 6665 in Hercules at 0.8". I have previously said that I thought 0.9" to be the absolute limit for my Mak 127, but the 127 had other ideas. With a Barlowed ES 6.7mm giving a faintly ridiculous x448, it just about yielded. I assume that it was a combination of the exceptional seeing and the close magnitudes of the pair.

With that success, I decided to have a crack at my Nemesis, Zeta Herculis. It's wider at 1.5", but the mag difference is over 2.5, and I'd failed to split it on nine previous occasions. This time I got it with a Morpheus 9mm, a very faint companion at the correct PA, probably sitting in the third diffraction ring.

It was first night for a recently acquired Morpheus 14mm, which seemed as good to me as my existing 9mm. It gave cracking views on some wider open clusters. I also revisited some globs, including M56, which peviously has been just a blob. The Morpheuses did manage to tease out the odd star, but nothing was "popping" like they do on the larger globs.

Finally, I think I just managed to see the faintest smudge of the Fireworks galaxy, which I'd not attempted before.

 

[badhex]

Wanted to try my new Powermate out in my TS102 and at 2200 it was perfectly clear, so got the scope outside cooling on the balcony. Went to get it at midnight ready to go upstairs - 100% cloud cover 🙄

[Mark at Beaufort]

Well its been 5 months since I last took out a scope in the dark. I decided to look for the comet C/2017 K2 (Panstarrs) which was nicely placed in Ophiuchus. There is was - albeit faint in the 6" Newt using the 24mm ES68 + 7-21mm SvBony zoom.

 

[StephenRh]

Clear night here until around 1 am when low clouds started to come in.

Very nice view of the Dumbell - M27, then got some lovely views of Saturn and Jupiter. I still can't quite believe that Saturn's rings and Jupiter's moons are visible with just a bit of  glass and some mirrors.

[Xgaze]

First time out for ages this morning.
Took my 150m Dob. camping on Saturday, only early this morning was it clear enough.
I got up at first light and saw Jupiter as conspicuous as could be! got the scope out of the trailer, not sure if it had time to cool or not!?s et up really quick, collimation not even checked! 
Amazing views of our largest planet, two moons each side pricked out of the dimly lit sky.
I was able to clearly make out the banding and, I think I was able to make out the GSP? Checking on Stellerium, I think it is visible at the moment?

A joy to see when conditions are as good as they were just before dawn. 
I think I read somewhere that, viewing the planets is actually better at dusk or dawn - seems to be true!

Clear Skies!
 

T

 

[johnturley]

14 minutes ago, Xgaze said:

First time out for ages this morning.
Took my 150m Dob. camping on Saturday, only early this morning was it clear enough.
I got up at first light and saw Jupiter as conspicuous as could be! got the scope out of the trailer, not sure if it had time to cool or not!?s et up really quick, collimation not even checked! 
Amazing views of our largest planet, two moons each side pricked out of the dimly lit sky.
I was able to clearly make out the banding and, I think I was able to make out the GSP? Checking on Stellerium, I think it is visible at the moment?

A joy to see when conditions are as good as they were just before dawn. 
I think I read somewhere that, viewing the planets is actually better at dusk or dawn - seems to be true!

Clear Skies!
 

T

 

Somerset clearly seems to be blessed with a lot more clear skies at night than further north, in Derbyshire I've not had a clear sky at night for over 2 weeks.

[Martthebass]

Since acquiring my new mount I've so far only managed clouds, a few bats flying around the back garden, a hedgehog and the 'twin towers' of Huddersfield (Emley Moor transmitters).  I'm hoping for better things next week.

[Gfamily]

We arrived at Portsmouth Ferry terminal at 1:30am on Wednesday morning, ready for an 8am sailing to France.

Jupiter very bright, and Saturn clearly visible further over to the south. First sight of any planets (other than Earth) in 2022 I reckon.

Arrived at our place in the Charente at about 10;30pm, under clear dark sky. No energy for any astronomy though.

Prospects are good for clear nights over the weekend at least, so fingers crossed.

[ED Splitter]

Playing catch-up. 
 

I managed to get out on Tuesday. Saturn was the main draw as I could see it over the neighbours garage at11:20pm. First time seeing it this year. Great viewing conditions, first time using a mk4 baader zoom on planets using my SW100ed. Wish I’d bought one sooner. 8mm was plenty and to my eye I could see the Cassini division and an accompanying moon. 
I tried a vixen ssv 5mm but the atmosphere was a bit wobbly. If Saturn was higher 5mm might have been ok. Whilst I waited for Jupiter I hunted and found M2. Easier to hunt with a zoom, haven’t quite mastered the swapping of eyepieces with those pesky barrel safety cuts. 
Later on saw Jupiter and 4 Galilean moons and Andromeda. Whilst waiting for my first ever view of Mars I cruised through the night sky just noodling around when the patio doors opened and I looked to see my wife standing there asking me if I knew what time it was. Genuinely thought it was approaching one am. I was told in no uncertain terms it was after two… eek. Time flies and all that. Anyway being on borrowed time and all I picked up the scope and I know what you’re thinking but no I didn’t go inside I scarpered down the bottom of the garden where I knew I could spot Mars on the other side of the neighbours garage. It was orange and blurry and lacked any detail at all but it was my first sight of Mars through a telescope and it was glorious. I finally did it. Only Mercury left to get on my planetary bingo card. Anyway couple of minutes on Mars and I called it a night/morning. 4 hours later I was woken up by 4YO, took a day to recover. Only just been forgiven and then today I new eyepiece arrived… Mars part 2 coming soon.

ps. Hope these rambly posts are acceptable and if not that they are at least entertaining. 
 

[badhex]

Another clear night, another two firsts.

As well as Jupiter, Saturn and Uranus, I was able to spot four moons of Saturn - Titan, Rhea, Tethys and Dione - the latter two being the first ever observations for me.

Round the houses version here: 

 

[Gfamily]

Our first evening observing at Astrofarm France in 2022.  We had company from a Brit living locally who has been helping out with getting the warm room finished, a Canadian living in the East of France who has been over several times for imaging, and a relatively new observer who wanted to try some good dark skies. 

She has an 8" SCT at home, but gets frustrated with how long it takes to get the alignment good enough - and I sympathise because my 8" Meade ACF also has that problem. 

I had two scopes with me, the 72mm frac and the 127mm Mak, and it was interesting to be able to swap them  over on the mount so that she could see the difference that the wider field of view allowed. This was particularly true when we looked at NGC 457 (Owl/Dragonfly Cluster) in Cas.  I have to say that this is one of my favourite targets in the frac, I'd always been a bit underwhelmed by OCs using the longer focal length scopes, but with the wide field of view it looks fantastic. 

Other targets she was keen to see were Andromeda Galaxy and the Lagoon Nebula - hard to make out the nebulosity on the latter (but that could be my eyes), but the open cluster around it looked great.   

I also was able to show Albireo and M13, both of which were good to see again.

By not long after midnight, Saturn was clear of the trees, and was spectacular in the frac and about an hour later, Jupiter was also visible above the treeline. 

After spending a while looking with the frac, I swapped over to the Mak for both, and demonstrated why the design is known as a planet killer.  Despite the relatively low altitude (23° and 14° respectively) , both planets looked fantastic under the higher power - I've never seen Saturn so clearly, at 160x; though Barlowing to push the magnification to over 300 was a bit much.

For some reason, the AZ GTi mount wasn't working properly with the Synscan software on my phone, but fortunately, I had a spare handset in my kitbag, so was able to set the alignment and find the targets that way.  Thinking about it now, the local Brit was trying out his recently purchased SynScan wifi module next door, so I wonder if he had connected to my mount's wifi network by accident.  I'll have to experiment further. 

By about 1:30 it was getting more humid, so decided to pack away, and the others lasted no more than another 30 minutes.